4: Hitch Hiking 101 – Hammocks, E-Coli, and Liquados – Talanga …

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4: Hitch Hiking 101
So my first “jolong” experience: here goes. Juice and I met at the Shell Station for a three day adventure. We watched two dread-locked female travelers jump into the bed of a truck and immediately knew that we too would ride free to Guaimaca, where the orphanages we were interested in volunteering at were.

It’s not as easy as throwing your thumb in the air and kissing public buses goodbye. There is definitely skill involved, as follows:

be a white female…Juice was immediately a threat.
run like crap when the truck stops because he will leave after 5 seconds exactly.
expect to have a bruised butt weeks after the ride…we’re not talking about truck shocks or asphalt roads here.
and finally…don’t do a back flip out of the truck bed – explanation follows!

We eventually got a ride all the way to Talanga – excellent! Side note: if you don’t have dreads to begin with – you will after the free ride. Now we are stuck in the middle of nowhere with maybe 30km to go. My thumb takes over the negotiating and a shiny red truck passes us as we curse him for being inhumane. But he stops…so we run and he’s our ticket to Guaimaca, without understanding why in the crap we want to go there.

The truck is slowing and Justin suggests we save the guy some time and jump out of the bed before he comes to a complete stop. I’m up for anything and forcefully throw my legs over the side but my backpack is caught in the bed and I’m now hanging. Do know that this town has never seen a foreigner before and every man between the age of 25 and 70 is sitting on a long wooden bench in front of the local pulperia, wide eyed in bewilderment. I catch myself, hooking my arm above the tire and do a complete back flip as my pack quickly releases but land perfectly on my feet. Justin is clueless but my face and the reaction of every coke-sipping man on that bench marked me the town fool.

We take a taxi to the orphanage, meeting a very friendly, older lady from New York who makes us some Tang and condemns us for being a male and female traveling together – “Not normal in the Christian circle.” Juice and I vowed to be brother and sister from here on out. She had no need of our help. We are now sinning fools and were off to Juiticalpa.

Questions?
If you want more information about this area you can email the author or check out our Central America Insiders page.

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